Ron,

I don't know how hard it is to get guns from the US for you. However you can find better pricing here in the US. The last Simson I bought was a gun with a blown left barrel and I got the entire gun for $250. However routinely you find perfectly fine Simsons or Merkel 8's for less than $1,000. It seems that Sauers are hit and miss here. Some are priced reasonably and some are just out there. I found that if you take your time and are selective you can find great actions with bad barrels for a considerable discount. I bought a German 16 last year for $100 off Gunbroker. Just need to look and be patient.

However I agree with you. I just can't bring myself to hacksaw a perfectly fine set of tubes. I've been playing with shoe lump barrels on the last few projects and really like that better than even monoblocking. I started using the set-up found here. I simply cut my material into a "T" shape with the bottom of the "T" being the lugs. I just trace the current set of lugs I have and form them to the stage of handfitting. Then make the mould as outlined above of the barrel bottoms then set-up and mill the top of the "T" so with minor hand fitting it fits the contours of the barrels. Then I silver braze the assembly together (after fitting the rib extension). I had been doing the brazing by hand with torch but found a local shop with a small oven and do it in there now. They only charge me a couple of dollars. Anyway it gives the clean look of barrels without monoblock seams and keeps from having to cut a perfectly fine set of barrels.

Bill